


Freely Given Canvases

by CatKing_Catkin



Series: Mollymauk Lives Fest [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Character Study, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Genderfluid Character, Genderfluid Mollymauk Tealeaf, Introspection, Nonbinary Mollymauk Tealeaf, POV Mollymauk Tealeaf, Tattoos, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 10:23:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15861738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatKing_Catkin/pseuds/CatKing_Catkin
Summary: As time goes by and the team grows closer, one by one, the Mighty Nein find themselves asking Molly to tattoo them for one reason or another.It's a responsibility that Molly takes as seriously as they take anything in their life. And so they work to help their friends immortalize the good and important aspects of their lives together forever in ink.Being Molly, they find room on their own crowded flesh to carry those moments as well.Written for the Mollymauk Lives Fest, Day 1, Prompt “tattoos”





	Freely Given Canvases

When Molly first got it into their head to learn how to tattoo flesh, Yasha offered to let them practice on her. 

"I get cut up and bruised and just kind of generally fucked up a lot," she declared. "It might be nice to have something left behind that's pretty."

"You are vastly overestimating my art skills," Molly said.

"Well, _you_  are vastly overestimating my standards."

Even so, Molly spent a couple of weeks studying the subject they eventually meant to immortalize in ink. At least it was in season. The end result was that they left Yasha with a little bundle of blue forget-me-nots, blooming from a particularly nasty scar on her side.

That had been a solid month after she'd first joined the circus, and the first time she took a look at the results of their work was the first time they saw Yasha smile.

*  *  *

It was Jester who brought up the idea first.

"I just, sometimes I can't just pull out my holy symbol, so it can be hard to be as close to the Traveler as I want to. You know?"

"Absolutely. I understand completely." 

And so Molly taught her about the practice of tattooing yourself with a color of ink only a shade or so lighter than your own skin, so that it would be invisible except to anyone you let close, to anyone who didn't already know it was there. Jester was _delighted_  at the sneakiness of the idea. Together, they picked out a shade of baby blue ink that would do just perfectly, and Molly spent a couple of hours one afternoon tattooing the Traveler's symbol on the inside of her wrist. 

Forever after, when Jester was especially nervous or scared, Molly would see her wrap the fingers of one hand around her marked wrist, free to hold on to her god at last. 

*  *  *

Fjord, as it happened, already had a couple of tattoos. Molly had caught a glimpse of them in the past when everyone had been bathing together, and of course had been curious to get a closer look ever since. So when Fjord asked Molly to add to his little collection, Molly was not only honored, but grateful to have their curiosity satisfied at last.

"What a storied life you've led, Fjord," Molly sighed, as they gave the needle one final wipe-down with a clean cloth, Fjord having just finished walking him through where some of his ink had come from and why. "I can only hope to match it one day."

"I really hope you don't," said Fjord. "A lot of these mostly wound up being marks of bad decisions."

"That doesn't make them a bad thing! Every decision you make is a decision that's led to you being who and where you are today. And, quite honestly, I _like_  the end result of yours'." 

Fjord smiled in that embarrassed, beautifully _genuine_  way he had that Molly loved so much. "Well, thank you, Molly. Nice of you to say so. But...I think I'm ready to start commemorating some of the better decisions, too. And you guys are one of 'em. Most of the time."

"Happy to assist! Now, hold still..." And Molly set to work adding an albatross to the collection.

*  *  *

Beau wanted a dragon twining down her arm.

"Oh, you mean like this snake tattoo I have here?"

"Shut up."

"It's really so very flattering that you want to imitate my style."

"Fuck you, Molly. I want to wear it _better_. And if you fuck this up, just remember I know where you sleep."

"And knowing that won't do a thing to change the fact that I could tattoo a dick on your arm if the mood took me."

But they were only teasing, and on some level she must have known it, because Beau sat down for them three nights in a row to let Molly slowly etch the image of a snarling black dragon, twining all down her arm and with its open jaws painted across her fist. Molly took their time on this one, they put in all the fine detail they could and pushed their artistic talents to the limits of their comfort zone, because Beau was going to wear this for the rest of her life.

And they never wanted her to forget that it was only by the grace of Mollymauk Tealeaf that she was going to look this cool forevermore. 

*  *  *

Nott's request was simple and straightforward. She wanted two tattoos of two different dates, one on each ankle. She steadfastly refused to tell them their significance. "You shouldn't need me to."

All Molly could tell was that the two dates were six months apart. But she refused to tell them more and they didn't press her further, just cleaned their needle and set out some black ink and marked the two dates into her skin forever with small, careful taps.

It was Jester who finally provided the answers Molly wanted, and she did so accidentally, by turning up at breakfast one day with an entire cake in a box. "Happy anniversary, everyone!"

It had been one year ago today that they'd all tripped over each other in a tavern in Trostenwald.

It had been one year and six months ago today that Caleb Widogast and Nott the Brave had met in prison.

*  *  *

Caleb offered up his entire back to Molly's design. Molly didn't have to ask why. They'd seen Caleb in the bath as well, after all.

It took almost a week to finish this newest project, including the time Molly took simply mulling over designs. Caleb didn't care what sorts of designs or colors Molly marked him with. He'd been as certain on that point as Molly ever saw him. He just wanted the scars gone. 

Together, they broke the project into bits and pieces the next time they were all due to be in town for a while. Every evening, they both blocked out some time for Caleb to sit on the floor and read and for Molly to sit behind him and work. They'd thought Caleb might be the most bothered by the constant, if slight, pain of the needle, but there was never a twitch nor a sigh. He was an impossibly peaceful canvas for Molly to lay their art upon, and Molly loved him even more for it.

They painted a phoenix on Caleb's back with ink beneath the skin, a firebird with its wings spread across Caleb's shoulderblades and its long, feathered tail curling down his spine. And over the smaller scars scattered across Caleb's worn and tired skin, Molly tattooed blue forget-me-nots and purple snapdragons and green grass blooming from the skin, covering the old wounds. Rebirth could mean so many different things, after all, and fire could heal what it left behind as well as ruin it.

Caleb pretended not to care when Molly was done with their work, but he went to Nott later on to ask her to describe it. However she described the elaborate landscape on Caleb's back, he was so happy that at dinner he came and hugged Molly without ever saying why, just thanking Molly over and over again with his face buried in his friend's shoulder. He didn't have to say any more.

*  *  *

Of course, any craftsman who was remotely confident in their work should be prepared to test it on themselves, in Molly's very definite opinion. They didn't have as much bare skin left to work with as their friends, but for their friends Molly found room. They tattooed two dates on one ankle and the Moonweaver's holy symbol on the inside of one wrist in pale lavender ink. They added an albatross to their chest with its wings spread against their ribs and a small black dragon that reached from their other ankle to their shin. 

A small cluster of blue forget-me-nots had graced their skin for almost as long as they cold remember, but there was still room to add a phoenix curled around them with its flames burning bright. 


End file.
